Talk of the Town
by fatalis-stille
Summary: The thoughts of the cast on Akabane and Ban's not-so-secret relationship. Sort of a sequel to Stillness and Silence. Lots of pairings. Implied AkabanexBan. Revised.


Disclaimer : The beautiful gay and non-gay cast of Get Backers is not mine. Don't sue. Author's Note: Het pairing. Shido x Madoka. My first fic with a het pairing. Go easy on it. It's not perfect.  
  
Talk of the Town  
  
"What are you smiling about?"  
  
Madoka laughed quietly as she felt Shido's baffled curiosity rear its ugly head, messing up the calm aura that she always associated with the Beast Master. He was so used to knowing everything about everyone that he'd feel left out whenever he didn't understand something. She'd have to tell him to stop asking about everybody through his animals because he was becoming a little paranoid.  
  
If she could have, Madoka would have rolled her eyes.  
  
Paranoid didn't suit Shido. Madoka didn't like the way he'd tense up whenever he felt unreasonably sensitive. It made him easily irritable and she didn't want him to be prickly when she told him about the object of her amusement.  
  
He might burst a vessel or something.  
  
"Nothing, Shido-kun. I just remembered a conversation I overheard a little while ago at the Honky Tonk."  
  
Her sense of humor gave her thoughts a little poke.  
  
//You didn't actually hear anything, Madoka-chan. You just heard a lot of implied innuendos. //  
  
Teehee. Of course.  
  
Shido's steps stuttered for a second as he digested what she just said. If she concentrated hard enough, she might even be able to hear the thoughts zooming through his head as he started reviewing everything that happened there frame by frame. She knew he wouldn't be able to pinpoint what it was exactly that she found entertaining, but he'd try till his hair turned white.  
  
She'd have to save him from old age soon.  
  
"The sun feels great today, Shido-kun. Would you mind accompanying me to the park, for even just an hour? I'd appreciate it very much if you did." She twirled in front of him to show that she wanted to release some pent up energy, tiptoeing like one of the ballerinas she'd heard about.  
  
The edgy feeling that was eating her companion up instantly dissipated, evaporating into thin air as if it had never existed. She felt the muscles in his face relax slowly as he smiled for her, and like a reflex she couldn't help, she smiled back in return. His aura flared brilliant white for a moment, and then settled back to the deep, serene blue it usually was.  
  
"You know you don't have to ask me those questions. I'd follow you wherever you'd wish to go."  
  
She laughed out loud when she heard him say that, couldn't repress the feelings those words gave her. She knew he wouldn't take it the wrong way, knew that he understood she was only happy.  
  
Shido knew everything that there was to know about her.  
  
"Come on then. I don't want to waste time dawdling in the streets because of you."  
  
"I don't dawdle. I saunter."  
  
"Mido-kun says you look like a drunken gorilla when you try to do that."  
  
"WHAT!?!?!"  
  
And she poked him in the midsection to tell him she was just joking, shoulders hunching up in suppressed hilarity. He huffed in feigned irritation and pretended to be annoyed at her.  
  
She laughed more that day than she had in weeks. There was this atmosphere about Shido that just loosened the binds that seemed to constrict her, made the constant darkness that surrounded her brighter than it really was. Even the sun was a little warmer because he was there.  
  
Contented. Madoka felt contented whenever Shido was near.  
  
Too soon for her liking, the sun's rays began to become weaker. Beneath the giant tree, sakura judging from the smell, she was sitting beneath, she nestled beside the lion that had appeared sometime that afternoon. Shido was lying in the grass a few meters away from her, and she could hear him whistling a tune to himself that made the birds over head chirp in response and made Mozart want to bury his head in the grass.  
  
Mozart hated it when Shido talked to the birds. Madoka didn't know why.  
  
"Madoka. About the reason you where smiling this afternoon. It was about the monkey-man and Akabane, wasn't it?"  
  
Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, but she didn't answer him back. He'd take it as a cue to continue.  
  
"The animals inside the room started acting differently the moment Akabane stepped into the room. At first I thought it was because of their inherent dislike for everything he stands for, but later, I found out that there was a different reason altogether. I couldn't pinpoint it, but it seemed as if there was something going on between them other than their petty conversation."  
  
So Shido figured that after all.  
  
Propping herself up on her elbow, she carefully rearranged herself so that the lion wasn't poked by her arms. She didn't know how to tell Shido. Though comical to her point of view, she didn't know how the brunette was going to take it.  
  
Better now than never. She mentally steadied herself for what she was about to do, picking at the words in her head that she would use to tell him, trying to create some sort of guide that would help her get past this as gracefully as possible.  
  
She ended up with a complete blank.  
  
"I think that Akabane and Mido-kun are having an... affair of sorts." Blood instantly rushed up to her face as the last words died out.  
  
The whistle that was about to leave Shido's lips instantly did a double take and punched him in the lungs instead, causing him to hit his head on one of the roots of the tree and sit up gasping for breath.  
  
She thought something like this might happen.  
  
"Are you alright, Shido-kun?"  
  
"I'm fine. I'm fine. What were you saying again?"  
  
She took a gulp of fresh air and continued where she left off.  
  
"This morning, while we were eating breakfast, I noticed that Mido- kun would hiss slightly every time he'd sit. I disregarded it at first, because I know I shouldn't be prying into other people's business, but I couldn't help but overhear the sub-conversation that was held between Akabane-san and Mido-kun. I'm quite sure there is something sexual going on between those two, but I don't know how far they've reached in their... relationship."  
  
She could feel Shido's intense gaze boring holes into her face, and she tried not to let the threatening blush stain her cheeks once more.  
  
"Akabane purposefully taunts Mido-kun because he knows that the other will never retaliate when he's with us. It'll give him away."  
  
Silence.  
  
For the longest time, there was only silence between her and him. Even the animals seemed to understand that this was not the time to make noise, because all of them were as silent as the grave, staring steadily at the two humans in their midst as if they were more interesting than food.  
  
She shifted uneasily where she was.  
  
"Ahh..." That one syllable shattered the uptight atmosphere that had developed like a fog around them, and Madoka let out the breath she didn't know she was holding in.  
  
"So you understand?"  
  
"I think I do. Some things began to make sense once you explained your theories." The grass crunched noisily as Shido's weight settled more fully on the patch he occupied.  
  
"Does it bother you then?"  
  
The rustle of clothing told her he just shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"I don't really care who plugs the monkey up the ass, no matter how completely..." Shido struggled for a proper word "... psychotic they may be. Just as long as he doesn't harm anybody."  
  
Direct, short and straight to the point. Madoka couldn't argue with reasoning like that. She lay back once more and closed her eyes, relishing the coolness of the wind and the last remaining rays of sunshine.  
  
So it had turned out alright after all.  
  
"What do you thinks going to happen between the two of them?" The question popped into the air unbidden from her lips, startling her in its spontaneity. She usually never voiced her thoughts out loud; just kept them floating around inside her head and let them disappear whenever they wanted to.  
  
A part of her hoped that Shido didn't hear what she said, and another part was hanging desperately to the hope that he did.  
  
"Who knows? Only time will tell. They are both two wild cards no one can really control."  
  
And that's what they were exactly. For who on earth can truthfully say that he can order around the enigma that was Mido Ban or the lethal mystery that was Akabane Kuroudo?  
  
"Yes. Only time can tell."  
  
On the other side of the park, Madoka heard the faint tinkling of cat bells and the almost weightless recoiling of a string.  
  
Mozart heard it too, and perked his head up to tell Shido.  
  
"So they know about it too, huh?"  
  
She could only manage to nod as slumber overtook her with a smile still on her face.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
fatalis  
  
* Does Shido portrayal suck? ** I made Madoka's hearing above super human. Hooray for me!  
  
Just wanted to see if I could actually do a het pairing. Hehehe. So you like it? Should I just screw trying to do het pairings and stick with slash? Did I do this right? Can you consider this the end of Stillness and Silence?  
  
Review, review, review! It's my birthday today, please deal with my hyperness! :D 


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